The sweetest side of summertime
These glorious fast-growing peas fill the air with heavenly perfume for months on end – and now is ideal time to sow them
SWEET peas are nature’s answer to artificial air fresheners. Sow seeds in spring and the long, straight stems will take off upwards, producing sprays of flowers that will infuse the summer garden with their heavenly perfume – sweet, with spicy and green notes, the fragrance will mask any bad smells in the air.
Apart from their humdinger of a scent, sweet peas are easy on the eye. The single, semi-double and fully double flowers are borne in great succession from June until September – they come in shades of white, pink, purple, blue, orange and red, with many boasting blooms that are two-tone or even multi-coloured.
Getting hold of seeds is trickier than normal due to the closure of garden centres during the lockdown. However, they can still be ordered from online suppliers, although delivery is slower due to demand. Those who aren’t self-isolating might strike lucky and find a display rack of packets in the supermarket. Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) are native to southern Italy, Cyprus and the Aegean islands. We’ve been growing them in Britain since the late 17th Century, when a Sicilian monk named Franciscus Cupani sent wild sweet pea seeds to Robert Uvedale, a botanist and schoolmaster from Enfield, Middlesex.
In the beginning, sweet peas had small flowers but that all changed in the 1880s thanks to the breeding work of Henry Eckford, a nurseryman in Wem, Shropshire. His ‘grandiflora’ types had much larger blooms and were an instant hit, leading to a surge in popularity for these annual climbers.
During the Edwardian period, sweet pea fever swept the country when the Daily Mail ran a competition offering £1,000 (£100,000 at today’s value) to the reader who could grow the best bunch. Along with the jackpot, the paper had 2nd and 3rd prizes of £100 and £50, and 100 medals for runners-up.
No newspaper had ever run a competition with such a big prize fund before, and interest was so great that more than 38,000 bunches were sent for judging at the Crystal Palace exhibition centre in the summer of 1911. The winner was
Janet Fraser from Kelso, Scotland, who later had a variety named in her honour.
To grow your own prizewinners, start by soaking seeds in water overnight to soften their seed coats and improve germination. Those that are nice and plump after soaking up water will be ready for sowing.
Don’t discard ones that haven’t changed – nick the outside with a sharp knife and they should be fine.
These annual climbers like a warm, sunny and sheltered spot with fertile, well-drained soil.
Sow seeds ½in deep directly in the ground beneath vertical supports – they are happy trained up an obelisk, wigwam of canes or piece of trellis, or against walls and fences that have been fitted with training wires.
Another option is to set seeds in containers filled with multi-purpose compost. Sweet peas have deep roots, so use a large, 18in-wide container and place a structure for them to climb on top, such as a decorative obelisk. Sow a seed, ½in deep, at the base of every upright support and water well.
Shoots should nose their way above the surface within two to three weeks. When seedlings are about 4in high, pinch out growing tips to produce stronger, bushier plants. As they establish, plants will climb by twining their tendrils around supports but give them a helping hand to start by tying in stems with twine.
Water plants regularly, especially during warm spells, and feed every week with a high-potash fertiliser once flower buds appear.
Sweet peas will deliver flowers all summer long if you stop them producing seeds – use a combination of deadheading and picking stems for displaying indoors to keep them energetic.
The biggest newspaper prize ever was offered for the best bunch of blooms